


Silent in the Trees

by dearly_beloved



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-05 21:00:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13396128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearly_beloved/pseuds/dearly_beloved
Summary: Tyler isn't ready to give up on finding his best friend.





	Silent in the Trees

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Twenty One Pilots fanfiction, and probably my last. I was momentarily inspired to write this. Hope you like it.
> 
> Also no one proofread this (not even me) so I apologize in advanced for any typos or mistakes

The air was freezing cold.  Tyler shivered even through the layers he was wearing.  Nightfall was coming.  The sun had long ago disappeared behind the mountain peaks, and the first stars would already be appearing if the night sky wasn’t shrouded with clouds.  Clouds that dropped white snow, slow but heavy on the branches of the ancient forest trees, and covering the ground in a thick blanket.  But Tyler went on, dragging his legs through knee deep, freezing snow.  The bottom of his jeans have been soaked for ages, it seems.  He would not stop until he found who he was searching for.

 

            “I know you’re out there,” he muttered, feeling weak and defeated as the temperature crawled closer to 0.  He would die out here if he had to.  He needed to find his friend.  His savior.

 

            Josh was his best friend.  They had known each other for ages.  Since they were children, they were always by each other’s sides.  He went missing in the forest and Tyler wouldn’t lose him.  He could never lose Josh.  He had no one else left.  Who was supposed to help him if Josh was gone?  Who was he supposed to spend all of his time with when Josh was gone?  Who would he continue his love for music, his one true career with if Josh was gone.

 

            Know, he couldn’t be gone.  The police said he was probably dead, but Tyler refused to quit searching, even when the police had given up.  He would find his best friend.  He would bring josh home alive.

 

            So Tyler dragged on in the sub-freezing weather, over boulders and down ravines, over frozen rivers and patches of slipper ice.  He fell hard to the ground more than a few times, and he was covered with cuts and bruises.  He tried to ignore the numbness in his toes, the deep purple hue of his fingers, and bleeding nose.  He felt the blood freezing on his face.  Tears fallen loose from his eyes froze in his lashes.  This was not a good sign.

 

“Josh!” I yelled desperately, aching for a response.  All I heard was my own voice echoing through the valley.  An owl called somewhere nearby.  A creature of darkness, to represent the very spirit of the night taking over.

 

            _Where are you?_ I thought, growing more desperate as each minute passed by.  Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.  Maybe I was driven by my own misery and insanity.  The snow is falling so thick and heavy, that my vision is blinded by a screen of white.  I realize that I have no idea where I am.  I realize that I will never find my way back to the car.  I’ve stopped shivering, I’ve embraced the numb cold.  I realize that I may die here.  I only hold it together for Josh.  I only hold it together in the hope that I may find him.

 

            In my mind, he was most certainly alive.  I pictured him glowing and happy, warm despite the icy chill of this winter night.  I could see him just around a corner, simply hiding behind the next large tree.  He was playing hide and seek, like we did so often when we were kids.  Yes, this was nothing but an elaborate game of hide and seek.

 

            But I’ve given up by now.  I don’t want Josh to remain hiding anymore.  The time has passed… too much time has passed.  I’ve excepted that I will never find Josh where he lies… hidden in the nook of a tree, or beneath the canopy of an icy river.  No, I couldn’t think like that.  I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes once again, freezing instantly as they collected in my eyelashes or on my upper cheeks.  So I chanted my defeat, in the sing-song way we would do so as children.  “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”  It sounded like a desperate plea.  I sobbed with no tears, my eyes were finally dried out by the icy chill.  “Josh!  Please… Josh…”

Suddenly, something that differed from the white, snowy landscape caught my eye.  It was a soft light, glowing with an orange warmth.  The light was covered by a tangle of trees and shrubbery, but it flickered with the life of a glowing fire.  The warmth pulled me in.  Somehow I knew, I just knew.  I knew this was the way I should be heading.  If I followed the light, I would find the truth.

 

            I felt terrified as I neared the hidden flames.  Somehow I knew I was in danger.  But I accepted the inevitable end.  I took a deep breath, taking step after step forward.  I was being led to the truth.  I was nearing my life revealing itself.

 

            I rounded the corner, but suddenly the light was gone.  I looked around, dumbstruck.  Suddenly I heard the soft _whoosh_ of a car driving by, from somewhere above and behind me.  I look up the side of the cliff some ways away, realizing I’d somehow found my way back to the one road that winds through this cursed valley.  My eyes tried to find the road but could not catch sight of it in the dark.  A hundreds of trees, rocks and bushes obscured my view, anyhow.

 

            But eventually, I noticed something was off where I stood.  I caught side of a small tree having been knocked down in some event.  I noticed there was a clear path through the woods where I had been led.  The path was marked by destruction.  Rocks tumbled over, shrubbery flattened, the earth upturned among the ragged path.  As if something had torn through here, a monster destroying everything in its path.  My skin crawled, a warning siren in the back of my head was pleading with me to turn back.  I knew I might not like what I found at the end of the path.  It may even kill me.  But still I, I turned and headed along the tattered path.  I needed to know the truth.  The light had lead me here.  I knew this was my destination.

 

            I made my way more frantically along the path as time went on, occasionally tripping over rocks or branches and tumbling down a ways.  More scrapes and bruises, and possibly a few cracked ribs, were added to my overwhelming list of injuries.  And then I caught sight of something odd, possibly the ending of the past.  It was a large shape, nothing but a silhouette in the night, obscured by tree trunks and branches.  It was oddly deformed and hunched, still as ice in the night.

 

            “…Josh?” I pleaded, taking a few stops towards the object.  I didn’t know why but I felt his presence.  I knew he was there.  I knew I would find him soon.

 

            My heard stopped in my chest as I realized with a sudden jolt just what the object was that I was approaching.  It was a car.

 

            “Josh!  Oh, god,” I yelped, running towards the destroyed shape at first but then freezing suddenly about ten feet away.  Grief tore through my body, my heart contracting and my breath quickening as my fears were confirmed.  It was once an old grey jeep, there was no doubt about it.  A car I’d been on so many road trips in.  A car used in frequent trips to the mountains, or simply taco bell.  It was Joshes car.

 

            Without thinking, I dropped slowly to my knees.  It seemed that after all the effort, my legs were simply too tired to carry me anymore.  And now I had lost all reason to go on.  My best friend, was… he was…

 

            The car was annihilated.  Every window shattered.  Pieces missing and strewn over the forest floor.  Twisted and dented, contorted in every way it shouldn’t be.  And Josh was…

 

            I wouldn’t look at the driver’s window.  I refused.  I was afraid of what I might find.   Josh was…

 

            Oh god, Josh was dead!

 

            I turned at that moment, running from the scene of the crime.  It wasn’t long before a branch snagged my ankle again, though, and I fell as my bones twisted and cracked.  I cried out in pain, holding the now throbbing ankle close, wishing the pain would go away.  Wishing all of the pain would go away.

 

            My heart was shattered, and I wondered silently why God would hurt me in this way.  He had no right to take away my best friend, ever.  Even if it was to teach me a lesson… who could ever hurt Josh in this way?  He was the most innocent person alive, glowing with goodness and light.  God could strike me down; He could hurt me in any way He wanted.  But He had no right to end a life as wholesome as Josh’s. 

 

            My head spun rapidly, and I closed my eyes, allowing the sensation to take over for a moment.  Suddenly I wasn’t quite so cold, and the world of ice and snow was like a distant memory, far away.  I was somewhere else, hidden deep within the recess of my soul.  My skin was not my own any more, my bones were not my own.  They were someone else’s, far away.

 

            And I felt scared no longer.  I felt only at peace.  I could not live without Josh… so I simply wouldn’t.  The light led me to his car, and left me trapped out here in the forest.  Clearly I was meant to die.

 

            I couldn’t wait to see my best friend again, whether it be in Heaven or Hell of anywhere in between.  I just wanted to see his eyes squint shut in the midst of a warm smile again, I just wanted to watch his arms move rapidly as he played the drums with master skill.  I just wanted to hug him again and feel his warmth, to hang out with him and play Mario Kart in my living room with him.

 

            And as I felt myself fading, I saw a light.  At the end of the tunnel, as the always say it is.  And I was chasing it, the same warm firelight.  I was chasing it towards a place so much warmer and safer than here…

**Author's Note:**

> Some explanation if you want it (if you don't want to just enjoy the unclear nature of this story): Basically Josh's soul leads Tyler to finding him. After Tyler collapses and is dying. But I don't want to say he 100% died. Yes that could have happened, but he could have passed out and then been found later. Just wanted to leave it undecided, I guess.


End file.
